Lurie Children's Blog Search Results

• Luna’s Story: Beating Brain Cancer with a Little Bit of Paint and Positivity

  In summer of 2021, Luna, 11 at the time, had just returned from a vacation to Spain with her family when everything changed. Suddenly she started experiencing abnormal symptoms like constant and painful headaches, vomiting, lack of sleep, and even trouble with some fine motor skills like writing. This was especially concerning for an art lover...

• Haytham Doing Better Than Ever Following Liver Transplant From Altruistic Donor

  Editor’s note: The interview with Haytham’s family for this article was done with the help of a certified medical Arabic interpreter on Lurie Children’s staff. All quotes and information from the family were shared in Arabic and translated. ملاحظة المحرر: تم إجراء المقابلة مع عائلة هيثم من أجل هذا المقال بمساعدة مترجم طبي عربي معتمد من طاقم عمل...

• Ella’s Story: Saved by Bone Marrow Transplant from a Generous Stranger

  In September 2019, Ella, then 13 months old, experienced repeat ear infections and seemed lethargic to her parents Christina and Joe. When she began looking pale, Christina took her to their pediatrician. “We got the phone call in the middle of the night that no parent wants to get,” Christina said. Ella’s lab work showed an abnormally...

• More than five years since their transplant, 'liver sisters' are thriving

  In 2017, Kendall, then 17, and Avabelle, then eight months, were both struggling with serious liver conditions at Lurie Children’s. Kendall had an autoimmune hepatitis , a chronic liver disease, complicated by primary sclerosing cholangitis, a rare but serious condition that causes severe liver damage. Baby Ava was born with biliary atresia , a...

• ‘Fighter’ Grace marks 10 years since her kidney transplant

  The small scars on 11-year-old Grace’s body are a source of questions for the fifth grader. That’s because she was only 19 months old when she had a kidney transplant at Lurie Children’s. Today, almost 10 years since her transplant, the scars are virtually the only evidence of her previous health challenges. Before Grace was born, she was...

• Liam’s Cancer Story: “I think of the good more than the bad”

  It all started with a persistent bump near Liam’s eye. It was spring 2020, and amid the chaos of a global pandemic, Liam was preparing to graduate from eighth grade and hoping for a fun, active summer ahead. But the bump – which looked like an infected bug bite – was cause for concern. At the recommendation of his pediatrician, Liam underwent a...

• Born with hearing loss, Jack, 3, makes great progress with ‘super ears’

  After he failed his newborn screening test, Jack underwent an auditory brainstem response evaluation (ABR) when he was three months old at Lurie Children’s that confirmed his diagnosis of profound hearing loss. “This was a whole new world for us,” said Jack’s mom, Ashley of she and her husband, Sean, who have two daughters with no hearing loss....

• When the Provider Becomes the Patient: Marisa Nally’s Story

  By Marisa Nally, APRN-NP, FNP-C I am a nurse practitioner who knows firsthand what it is like to be a congenital heart patient at Lurie Children’s Hospital. In addition to being a former cardiac patient, I am also a member of the hospital’s Cardiology Electrophysiology (Heart Rhythm) team. I was born three months premature, weighed under two...

• Carter’s Story: Energetic Childhood Powered by Cardiology ‘Dream Team’

  At six years old, Carter has boundless energy, curiosity and imagination. He loves going to school – and his parents find that the more he learns, the more gusto he has. “He’s a straight shooter,” Carter’s mom, Shuntae, said with a laugh. “Whatever he says, that’s what it is.” But there was a time when certainty was a rare commodity for Carter...

• Maya Thrives Following Heart Surgery at Two Weeks Old

  Marci and Jesse will never forget running alongside a nurse from their pediatrician’s office in downtown Chicago toward Lurie Children’s. Their baby girl, Maya, then two weeks old, had woken up early one morning and her breathing sounded unusual. Moments after the parents brought Maya to see her pediatrician, they were running, literally, toward...

• Annie’s Story: Pulmonary Vein Stenosis Program Provides a ‘Hope that is Everything’

  Annie was born prematurely at 26 weeks in February 2018, weighing in at only 1 pound and 6 ounces. After three months in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Prentice Women’s Hospital , she was transferred to Lurie Children’s NICU , where a team of specialists was ready to diagnose and treat the critical conditions affecting her heart and...

• Then and Now: Former NICU patient Max gives back and fosters community

  When Max was born six weeks premature in 2005, his parents never would’ve suspected that he would have a health complication. His mom Michelle had a typical pregnancy until she went into labor, so she and her husband Steve assumed their baby was just arriving a few weeks early. But about one hour after Michelle gave birth, doctors told her they...

• From Patient to Nurse- Meet Molly Fruecht, Diabetes Nurse Educator

  From a young age, Molly Fruecht, RN, knew she wanted to work in healthcare. Growing up with type 1 diabetes meant she was exposed to medicine from an early age. It also inspired her to want to work with other patients with diabetes once she got older. Throughout childhood and her young adult life, Molly was a patient seen by the specialists in...

• Orchestra Aficionado Zachary Overcomes Rare Disease Struggles Through Symphony

  For seventeen-year-old Zachary, two things have been constants in his life from a young age: his undeniable passion for music and an unfortunate series of health challenges he’s had to overcome time and time again. Despite recurring sepsis infections and ketotic hypoglycemia that gave his parents a real scare as a baby and toddler, Zach made full...

• Responsive Neurostimulation (RNS) Therapy Alleviates Liam’s Seizures

  Liam was 5 when he had his first seizure. After a bike ride, his eyes involuntarily darted back and forth – a movement known as nystagmus. He told his mom, Laura, he felt dizzy. The unusual eye movements and dizziness kept happening, so Laura and Liam’s dad Kevin sought an evaluation from a neurologist near their suburban Chicago home, who wrongly...

• Seizure-free Stella Celebrates Life After Hemispherotomy Surgery

  Stella was just four months old when the physical therapist she was seeing due to her premature birth noticed she was not moving her left arm well. Her parents Michelle and Patrick made an appointment with Lurie Children’s Division of Neurology , where Dr. Denis Altman scheduled an MRI. The scan revealed that Stella had suffered a stroke before...